As the integration density of a semiconductor chip increases, the size of a semiconductor chip generally decreases. Accordingly, as a semiconductor device, such as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) device becomes more minute, it may be difficult to ensure that a cell transistor (cell Tr) maintains a sufficient drive capability.
In the case of a DRAM device, although the size of a memory cell transistor may decrease, the threshold voltage across a memory cell transistor is still typically kept at about 1 volt based on the refresh characteristics of the DRAM device. The gate length of a memory cell transistor and the width of an active region within a memory cell transistor may decrease as the size of a semiconductor device is reduced. To maintain the threshold voltage across a memory cell transistor at about 1 volt, channel density may be increased. Increasing the channel density, however, may cause the junction electric field to increase and the density of defects to increase, which may degrade the refresh characteristics of the DRAM device.
Also, a shallow junction is generally needed to reduce the size of a semiconductor device and to decrease the impurity concentration of a drain or a source region. Consequently, parasitic resistance may rapidly increase and the driving ability of a memory cell transistor (e.g., the current through the cell transistor) may fall sharply.
As the size of a semiconductor chip decreases and the integration density increases, shallow trench isolation (STI) may be used to isolate individual devices from each other. STI is advantageous in that it may be used as an isolation technique in devices that have high pattern densities and it generally exhibits favorable isolation characteristics. The advantages of STI notwithstanding, if a transistor has an active region with a generally small width, then the threshold voltage across the transistor may decline.